[AMRadio] Bugged by CW?

[Brett Gazdzinski]

I keep trying to get back into CW, I used to enjoy it a lot 25 or more years 
ago, but I am very rusty and slow now.
I hear a lot of fast stuff at the low end of the bands, not much slow rag 
chewing, it seems mostly like the usual quick contact, 5 or 10 minutes.
Now, it seems my mind is half gone and I have a hard time of it, even 5 wpm.
I used to have no problem running at 20 or 25 wpm, using an old radio shack 
straight key.
I never tried a bug or keyer.
A few years ago I built an Elecraft K2 and had a CW contact on it, and got 
sort of worked up by the pressure of trying to send good code, and read it 
in an actual qso.

I have a little wilderness radio Sierra I use to copy CW in the den while 
the wife watches TV, great little rig, and I can also use the sdr-iq.

Brett
N2DTS



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bernie Doran" <qedconsultants at embarqmail.com>
To: "Discussion of AM Radio in the Amateur Service" 
<amradio at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:39 AM
Subject: Re: [AMRadio] Bugged by CW?


I am a little surprised  at these comments, it sounds like CW is pretty
scarce. I hear lots of CW stations here in the evening and even the daytime
(OHIO)   I did make one contact a few days ago, but my sending with even a
straight key is simply an embarrassment!!!  That was why only the one
contact, I did not want to subject anyone else to that!!!

I probably should not say this, but I am getting to the point that I do not
want to even hear SSB on 75/80,  and/ or talk to those guys that sound like
that have a mouth full of golf balls and a room temp IQ!!!   Very big change
from the time when most built  at least some portion of their gear.  I would
have never guessed that I would see the time that people buy a stupid
dipole!!!